Many households in the United States and throughout the world consume large volumes of beverages such as soft drinks, sodas, juices, lemonade, teas, isotonics, fruit drinks and other beverages on a daily basis. For instance, in 1998 retail sales of soft drinks in the United States were approximately 54 billion dollars, retail sales of fruit drinks in the United States were approximately 17.5 billion dollars and retail sales of isotonics in the United States were approximately 2.25 billion dollars.
Manufacturers in the beverage industry produce packaged beverages for consumers in the form of bottles, cans and cartons. They also produce liquid and powder beverage concentrates which require consumer preparation. Preparing beverages from concentrate by hand can be burdensome, time consuming and monotonous. Producing carbonated beverages from concentrate in homes using know commercial equipment is impractical because special equipment and supplies are required. Such home mixed beverages are often of inconsistent quality and flavor.
For those who choose not to prepare beverages from concentrates, maintaining an adequate supply of packaged ready-to-drink beverages can be relatively burdensome for families which experience a large consumption of beverages. Beverage containers, consisting largely of water, are somewhat heavy, and such beverage containers occupy substantial space in refrigerators. In many families, at least once per week, family members stock their refrigerators with packaged beverages because of limited refrigerator space. The amount of available refrigerator space limits a family's supply of refrigerated ready-to-drink beverages.
One way of minimizing a family's beverage supply tasks is by using a refrigerator which produces and dispenses ready-to-drink beverages. A number of beverage dispensing devices have been proposed specifically for household refrigerators, some of which involve producing carbonated beverages. The most common device enables consumers to dispense water and ice from a dispenser built into the exterior of a refrigerator door. Such types of dispensers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,956,967 and 6,039,219. Other dispensers enable consumers to dispense ready-to-drink beverages. Certain of these devices involve a connection between a beverage container in the refrigerator and a spout attached to the outside of the refrigerator. Pumping and other approaches have also been suggested to move the ready-to-drink beverage from the container through the spout. Devices such as these are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,791,523, 5,791,517, 5,542,265 and 4,930,666.
One refrigerator dispenser, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,949,903, involves the mixing of syrup and water and the dispensing of non-carbonated beverages. Another refrigerator dispenser disclosed in U.S. Reissue Pat. No. Re: 32,179 involves the mixing of syrup and carbonated water and the dispensing of carbonated beverages.
One problem with these refrigerator dispensers is the need to clean them. Since the refrigerator dispensers house and distribute consumable beverages, the dispenser components which come into contact with fluids must be cleaned to avoid bacteria growth and other contamination. The existing refrigerator dispensers include a relatively high number of separate components which require regular cleansing to prevent contamination. Furthermore, many of the components are not removable, and many are difficult to fully clean. Therefore, it is inconvenient and in many cases not possible to fully clean the components of the currently known refrigerator dispensers without disassembling these dispensers.
Although known refrigerator devices may enable users to dispense carbonated and non-carbonated beverages from residential refrigerators, the construction of these devices is relatively complex, and the use, supply and maintenance of these devices is relatively inconvenient, cumbersome, time consuming and generally impractical. Additionally, such know devices do not solve problems such as cross-contamination of different beverages. Thus, while the. patents indicated above disclose beverage dispensing mechanisms, there is no known commercially available refrigerator system for dispensing ready-to-drink beverages which eliminate cross-contamination problems.
Dispensing machines in commercial establishments are also well known for producing concentrate-based beverages. These machines, often found in restaurants and eateries, typically involve the mixing of syrup and carbonated or non-carbonated water and the dispensing of beverages, such as soda. Commercial machines such as these are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,647,512, 5,392,960 and 4,993,604. However, such commercial machines have not been suitably adapted for residential or home use or use in conjunction with residential refrigerators.
Countertop units for dispensing beverages have also been developed. For instance, Bev Star, Inc. produces a three drink countertop dispenser. However, such countertop units take up substantial additional counter space which is highly undesirable in most households. These devices also only dispense a limited number of drinks. Such countertop units may have valve brixing problems, mechanical failures and general reliability issues. Countertop units also utilize mechanical refrigeration to chill the water, which adds tremendous costs to the potential home consumer, thus adding to the impracticability of the application for the home user.
Accordingly, the assignee of the present invention owns U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/589,725 entitled “Beverage Distribution and Dispensing System and Method” which discloses and claims a beverage distribution and dispensing system which enables users to dispense a plurality of beverages from a residential refrigerator, which tracks beverage consumption and the use of the drink supply and CO2 supply, which automatically orders drink supply and CO2 supply as necessary, which facilitates the delivery of drink supply and CO2 supply to the users, which enables the users to determine beverage consumption and to change the dispensed beverages, and which reduces the need to store conventional beverage containers in the refrigerators of the users.
The present invention provides an improved beverage dispensing apparatus which is adapted to be used in conjunction with the beverage distribution system disclosed in that U.S. patent application.